For the love of food

This is not an article about pancakes that resemble celebrities. Although, that is not such a bad idea. If you have the skills, that is. I don’t, so my encounters with these artistic celebrity pancakes are limited to only admiring their looks and taste. Some of them resemble their originals so much, you’d be sorry to take a bite.

I have tried once to follow a YouTube tutorial and create a Cinderella for my daughter. It turned out to be more alike Shrek. A complete disappointment for both of us. That is why I limit myself to creating simple things, like stars and hearts.

Draw Your Pancakes
If you decide to take a shot at this type of pancakes, here is what tools you will need:
– Nonstick pan, preferably 12-inch. Butter and oil tend to make the images indistinct;
– Squeeze bottle of some sort, preferably wide-mouth;
– Spatula, preferably wide omelet-type;
– Hand mixer.

You need to mix all the ingredients thoroughly with the hand mixer to obtain a smooth, thin batter that won’t clog the nozzle of the squeeze bottle. Divide the batter into two bottles. Add some cocoa powder in one of the bottles to get dark tones.

Use the cocoa bottle first, to put down the dark areas and outer lines. The white batter is used for the lighter tones in the middle. Cook until the pancake bubbles on top, then turn and see the result.

If you are more skillful you can divide the batter into more bottles and add different food colorings. You can try writing letters or short phrases (like Happy birthday or a name) or draw something simple like the sun or moon, a snake maybe.

PS: To make things a lot simpler, you can use molds.Arranging Pancake Art
Another much easier way to create interesting stuff with pancakes is to create art using only a knife, fruits (or chocolate chips) and whipped cream.

Here are two simple suggestions:

Teddy bear head. Prepare your standard pancake recipe and fry. You can make your pancakes different sizes while cooking, by scooping smaller amounts of the batter for the pancakes that will represent the mouth and ears, and larger amounts for the “head”. Use the raisins as eyes and draw the nose and mouth with chocolate syrup. Or you can simply use a knife and cut out smaller circles from the regular pancakes and arrange them. It is also very easy to make a doggy and kitty head.

Santa Claus. Since Christmas is coming, here is a very appropriate pancake art suggestion. Use a regular-sized pancake as Santa’s face. Use raisins or chocolate chips for the eyes, strawberries for the nose and hat and whipped cream for the hair and beard.

Try also a snowman with two different-sized pancakes next to each other, smeared with whipped cream (or sifted with powdered sugar). Chocolate chips are used as eyes, mouth and buttons, whereas a halved strawberry serves as a nose.